100th Day of School Counting, Estimation, App, and MORE!

Sunday, January 29, 2017

It is that time of year again and our 100th day of school party is around the corner! I'm not sure who is more excited...me or the students!

If you are anything like me, I am NOT - I repeat am NOT - a worksheet kind of teacher. Don't get me wrong...there is a time and place for worksheets. Students do need to strengthen their little fingers and work on fine motor skills. However, I prefer to get the kiddos up and moving as much as possible during lessons.

So let me share with your all the great 100th day of school activities we have planned for our Kindergarten classroom.

Let's make counting fun!

Check out some of the activities that we like to do for our 100th Day of school!

First up are these fun counting mats. These are simply print and go! They come in color and/or black and white. You can laminate these and have the students reuse them each year by giving them a white board marker OR print the black and white versions and have them color the images.

There are several ways to use the counting squares on these counting mats. We like to stack sets of 10 snap cubes in each square and then count by 10's until we reach 100.

You can also use small manipulative's like beads, paper clips, or buttons. Make it editable and use different kinds of candy or cereal like smarties, cheerios, chocolate chips, etc.

We let them choose one pile of treats (10 small pieces) after they finish all of their piles of 10 and count to 100. This keeps them motivated until the very end and ensures there is less snacking and more counting going on during the lesson! ;)

My goal as a teacher is to incorporate hands on activities with my lessons whenever possible.

We do that with these prediction activities!

First, the students predict how high the water will be after 100 drops have been added to the jar. Then they color in their prediction and use a dropper to count 100 drops. After they've counted, they color in the height of the water in the 'what really happened' jar. This is a great time to talk about some basic science skills like prediction and results.

Another tasty activity we like to do is give students a dum dum sucker and have them predict how many licks it takes to eat the sucker. They write their prediction, lick the sucker, and write what really happened. I've never had a student turn this activity down...lol!

After we do our lollipop experiment, we typically need a shake break. haha! Our last prediction is our jumping jack timed prediction.

The students write how long they think it will take to complete 100 jumping jacks. Then we time the jumping jacks, and they write how long it actually took. One hundred jumping jacks is a lot for a little body, but the kids love getting up and moving during a lesson - be it jumping jacks or our favorite shake breaks!

I like to incorporate shake breaks between activities to get the wiggles out. There are several counting videos on YouTube that we use for this day. Some of our favorites are ones that count to 100 by 1's, 5's, 10's, and using pennies or dimes. Between you and me, the students have so much fun with these shake breaks that they don't realize they are even learning...mwahaha!

Paper Chain Station Activity

Another hands-on activity we use are these paper chains. I like to print each set of 10 on a different color Astro Bright paper so the students can easily identify the different set of 10's.

I normally break this activity up for the entire class, letting each student put 4 or 5 links on the paper chain at a time. When it is completed we lay the paper chain out and use a pointer to count to 100 by one's or ten's.

There is a fun app that you can use to 'age' your students. We use this app with our 'If I were 100 years old' writing worksheet. The students use the writing prompt to draw a picture and write about what they would do if they were 100 years old. The app is easy to use and the kids get a kick out of seeing themselves so old!

100th Day of School Worksheets

These are great to use for stations or during those 'filler times' when you just need something to do. (And - let's be honest - it's hard to know exactly how long activities are going to take on the 100th day of school! Sometimes you just need something you can pull out at the last minute. Plus, the kids love the 100th day so much that they won't mind doing these a couple days - or even a week - after the fun day has passed!)

100th Day of School Paper Bags

We typically end up with lots of goodies by the end of the day so I love using these cute little paper bag labels. It let's the parents know what we did in class that day and keeps everything in one place. Plus they are just super cute! (Grab some simple brown paper bags here.)

100th Day Hats

The last thing that I have to share are these adorable 100th Day Hats! These come in color and/or black and white and the students love wearing these for the entire day. You can even take it one step further and make these educational! Have students add 100 stickers or stamps to the white part of their hat. Or have them write the first letter of their first name 100 times! It's up to you (and depends how much time you have during the day).